We still do not know the annual income of political parties and individuals, nor have we a full picture of how elections are funded, Dr Elaine Byrneinvestigates.
THE CITY of Blinding Lights, now also known as The City of Flying Saucers, is a song by U2 with the lyrics: The more you know the less you see/ The less you find out as you go.
The Standards in Public Office Commission yesterday published the donations received in 2007 by TDs, Senators, MEPs and former members. Donations over €634 must be disclosed and the maximum that can be donated in any one year is €2,539. Donations to political individuals in 2007 amounted to €855,995.
Donations to political individuals are distinct from donations to political parties, where donations over €5,079 must be disclosed and the maximum that can be donated to a political party is €6,349.
Donations disclosed by parties for the 2007 election have yet to be disclosed to the standards commission, but it is fair to assume that these figures will not be substantially different to those of 2006.
Excluding subscriptions from the salaries of elected representatives to their parties, the donations disclosed by political parties in 2006 amounted to just €17,000, the lowest donated to political parties since the introduction of the disclosure system in 1998.
Although donation limits to political parties are pitched at a higher threshold, political individuals attract significantly more donations. It is evidently more attractive to donate to political representatives than political parties.
Fianna Fáil TDs, Senators, MEPs and former members received approximately two-thirds of all donations in 2007. Individuals from all the other parties combined, including Fine Gael, Labour, Greens, Sinn Féin, PDs, Socialist and non-party, received one-third of all donations.
These figures follow an established pattern. Fianna Fáil individuals also received two-thirds of all donations disclosed in 2002, the year of the last general election.
The fact that Fianna Fáil individuals receive more donations is not surprising. Proportionate to other parties, Fianna Fáil run more candidates than any other party.
The two-thirds/one-third breakdown, however, is particularly striking. From the 466 candidates that ran in the last election, 22 per cent were Fianna Fáil candidates.
In other words, a Fianna Fáil candidate receives three times more donations than any other party.
It is also worth noting that overall donations to individuals have increased by a third since the 2002 election.
Donations also significantly increase in election year. The total donations disclosed in the four years between the 2002 and the 2007 election is €250,000 less than that donated in 2007.
The standards commission established that the three-week period before the 2007 general election cost political parties and candidates over €11 million.
The standards commission is not required under the legislation to monitor any political party spending prior to this period.
When the monies donated to political parties and individuals are subtracted from the money spent on the election, approximately €10 million in donations are undisclosed.
In the absence of publicly available audited accounts of political parties, from where did the difference of €10 million come?
The Council of Europe body, the Group of States against Corruption (Greco), has conducted two evaluation reports on Ireland. The third evaluation report will focus on political funding. This has yet to be conducted.
In the UK, political parties publish their annual accounts on the electoral commission website.
The UK Greco report on political funding was published earlier this month. Greco recommended that UK political parties should "present their accounts in a coherent and more meaningful way".
It also recommended that a "common format be established" for parties' accounts and returns, with a view to ensuring that such information to be made available to the public.
These are lessons from which Ireland can learn, in advance of a thorough and potentially embarrassing evaluation by an international body.
Although in Ireland political parties tend to publish generalised annual accounts in their ardfheis programmes, there is no legislative obligation to publish their annual accounts or privately provide them to the standards commission.
The commission has called for a change in the law in this respect. In its 2006 report it stated that there was a strong case "to be made for increased transparency in political funding and for greater scrutiny of political party expenditure . . . and that party accounts must be presented at least annually to an independent authority".
We do not know what the annual income is for political parties and individuals. We do not have a complete picture of how election campaigns are financed.
I have had varying degrees of access to the accounts of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens over the last few months. (Sinn Féin and the PDs did not respond to numerous queries). The Fine Gael accounts were published in this newspaper on December 31st last.
In many respects, political parties are singing off the same hymn sheet. The cost of elections has become more expensive and this has caused increased financial difficulties.
In general, two-thirds of fundraising by political parties is membership-driven (income derived from party affiliation fees, annual national draws and small fund-raisers) rather than from large donations.
Political parties and candidates are undermining their own propriety by not disclosing their annual returns.
So what's stopping them publishing their accounts?
Dr Elaine Byrne is a political analyst and expert in political corruption